Aotearoa Domestic Football Roundup – May 5
Men’s Northern League
It wasn’t the most notable defeat of the weekend’s footy but woah Auckland City lost to the Auckland FC Reserves. Jonty Bidois scored the decisive goal with fifteen to go, right after Jerson Lagos had been sent off for City. AFC took it 1-0 for just their second ever win. They’re progressing very nicely, all things considered, and battling their way to victory against a stacked Auckland City side (other than teenaged third-choice keeper Areya Prasad getting a game) is a legitimising result. Having said that, ACFC have been wobbly lately. They’ve already lost three matches, two of them at Kiwitea Street, and probably most concerning is that they’ve scored nine times in eight matches. That ain’t right. That’s fewer than the AFC Reserves. Oliver Middleton missed his first game for AFC but Adam Coulibaly and Finn McKenlay continue to have started every Northern League match. Looks like Semi Nabenu and Nick Gaze have settled into starting spots over the last month.
Tauranga City had been chilling in first but they’ve dropped to third after losing 3-1 at home to East Coast Bays. All the scoring came in the second half. Jack Caunter’s penalty on the hour put ECB into the lead. Morgan Wellsbury added to his haul on 72’ when he headed in from a corner to make it 1-1. He’s got six goals this season. But Billy Jones immediately replied for ECB (73’) before James Elder (86’) ended the contest. Tauranga City had just defeated Western Springs, Auckland United, and Birkenhead United all in a row only to then lose to East Coast Bays. Super result on the road from Bays.
That outcome allowed Birkenhead United to jump back into top spot with a win, something they dutifully provided with a 3-0 result against Bay Olympic. Dino Botica’s ninth minute goal made sure that Birko were in front early... although it wasn’t until late that Sam Philip (83’) and Alex Connor-McClean (88’) ended the intrigue, both of them scoring as substitutes. Eastern Suburbs are also up to second following a 2-1 win away against West Coast Rangers. Zach Newman’s goal on 35’ had WCR leading at the half but Joby Reid’s 75th min goal tied it up and then Nick Petherick’s free kick won it at the death. Petherick is 19 years old and joined the Lilywhites from North Shore United this year.
Western Springs were too good for Fencibles, winning that one 2-0 at Seddon Fields. Goals scored by Reid Drake (32’) and Caspar McGavin (38’). Rayan Tayeb popped up off the bench for Springs so make that yet another former Auckland City dude who has made the switch to the Swans. Speaking of which, it was curious to see Otto Ingham turn out for Auckland United this week. The Ole Academy alum had been over in Sweden for a couple of years but returned a few months back to line up with Auckland City. Might be that he’s been told he’s not going to make the cut for the Club World Cup... or perhaps more likely he just wants more regular football than ACFC can offer with their 30+ player squad.
Anyway, Auckland United won 5-4 against Manurewa. They were up 4-0 early in the second half after a pair from Dre Vollenhoven (28’, 52’) plus a first goal for import Daniel Olaoye (35’) and naturally there was also an obligatory Emilano Tade goal, his being a 56th minute penalty. Keen Mandizvizda then got Rewa on the board as the clock ticked over an hour... only for Vollenhoven to complete his hatty five mins later. No time to rest though. Paul Day (71’), Anas Zara (74’), and a second for 17yo former AUFC player Mandizvizda (86’) made it a funky finish. Auckland United held on for the win but jeepers it got frisky.
Women’s NRFL Premiership
Ring the bells, sound the alarms, yell it to the mountains... the streak is over. Auckland United were defeated on Wednesday evening marking their first loss since October 2023. They’d gone 575 days and 55 games (across all competitions) since last tasting defeat. But in a rescheduled midweeker against West Coast Rangers at Fred Taylor Park they were toppled by a 2-0 scoreline. Goals for Shannon Henson (22’) and Minji Yun (33’) – Henson was still with AUFC the last time lost, although she didn’t play that particular game (a 3-2 defeat against Eastern Suburbs in the second week of the National League). Minju Yun has been banging them in for fun since joining WCR and this was her sixth goal already. From there it was NZ age grade keeper Sophie Campbell, a new addition to Rangers this year, who took over with a remarkable array of saves. Auckland United picked a strong team so no arguments there. They simply came up against a motivated rival who’d been plotting this downfall for more than a year. Looks like we’re going to have a mighty title race on our hands here – love to see someone rising to the levels of this dominant Auckland United side.
Auckland United promptly flew to Tahiti to defend their Oceania Champions League crown. Last season the tournament was earlier in the year and they took a young, less experienced squad and won it (albeit with some pretty close games involved). This time they’ve gone with something close to a full strength squad so expect them do well. Their opening group game was this arvo (Monday) against locals AS Pirae so we’ll follow up with all that next week.
Meanwhile, West Coast Rangers only had a couple of days to clean up before taking on Eastern Suburbs away on Sunday. Might have been some midweek hangover as they conceded inside of three minutes to a Zoe Brazier goal. But WCR scored either side of half-time, first via Emily Lyon (40’) and then via Shannon Henson (47’) – Henson’s sixth of the season – to see them through to a 2-1 win. Another excellent result. Sam Tawharu was sent off late for Suburbs due to a second yellow card. Eastern Suburbs had Shion Hwang in their starting eleven, she’s back permanently after being a guest player for the National League (Hwang previously scored absolute bundles for Melville United). There was also a debut off the bench for Fiji’s Cema Nasau. The Lilywhites men signed a couple of Fijian internationals for this season and now the women have joined the party. With this win, West Coast Rangers move into first place with a perfect seven wins from seven.
Western Springs had no issues breezing past Tauranga Moana. Okay, maybe one issue. They were 1-0 down with seven minutes gone after Jasmine Griffiths struck... but then an own goal five minutes later tied things up and it got a bit nuts from there: Anna McPhie (18’ & 35’), Cleo Carmichael (43’), Kitty Jacob (65’ & 72’), Ava Lewis (69’), Ella Findlay (84’), and Liz Savage (85’) all got amongst the scoring. Savage, Jacob, and Lewis got their goals as substitutes – Springs also game goalkeepers Angelique TuiSamoa and Amberley Hollis a half each so you get the idea. This was a cruise for the Swans. 9-1 was the final score.
And in a Friday nighter between Hibiscus Coast and Ellerslie, it was the latter who claimed a 3-0 win after a double from Maddison Ollington (12’ & 17’) and also an Abby Wright goal (31’). Great yarns from Ollington who has moved up from Hamilton Wanderers after their relegation last year. Same deal with Abby Wright who was making her 50th appearance for the Ponies. The Coasties did finally have the full trio of Aneka Mittendorff, Paige Satchell, and Anna Leat all together but they remain without a win after six rounds having only scored three goals. In fairness, their game against last-placed Tauranga Moana was postponed last week hence the only team they haven’t played is the only team beneath them. Everyone else has now played everyone once. We’re through the first of three rounds in the NRFL Prem.
Men’s Central League
The Wellington Phoenix Reserves lads have been superb in the initial rounds but Wellington Olympic are the big dogs in this competition. That hierarchy was reinforced as the Greeks scored three early goals (from three familiar heroes) on their way to a 3-0 victory against the WeeNix: Hamish Watson (4’), Jack-Henry Sinclair (16’), and of course there was a Ben Mata penalty as well (32’). The Phoenix were without Luke Supyk and Gabe Sloane-Rodrigues who were with the first team, though they did have Dublin Boon between the sticks after he and Eamonn McCarron swapped spots for the last round of A-League. First time McCarron’s been in an ALM matchday squad... and useful minutes for Boon who’s been the back-up ALM keeper since Alby Kelly-Heald got injured. As for the Greeks, this feels like something close to their very best eleven:
Scott Basalaj | Justin Gulley, Ben Mata, Alex Solomon | JH Sinclair, Tor Davenport-Petersen, Louis Danquah, Adam Supyk | Gavin Hoy, Isa Prins | Hamish Watson
(Guessing slightly with the formation there because the livestream was cancelled due to the weather but the names ought to speak for themselves. JHS was subbed injured after the third goal went in, Jonty Roubos replaced him but then he himself was replaced at half-time by William Vincent – could be a busy week for the physio).
All that we were missing there was a goal from ex-Phoenix Academy striker Josh Rudland who got about twenty mins off the bench. Rudland was featured in the match programme where he said his favourite TV show is The Sopranos, his ideal dinner party would be Marcus Aurelius, John Mayer, and Margot Robbie... and his favourite football team is Auckland FC. Of course, this was also Paul Ifill vs Chris Greenacre in the coaching stakes, a couple of Phoenix legends. With the Nix U20 women winning again this weekend, as well as their Women’s Central League side, and the Men’s U17s side winning two from two... this was the first defeat of the year for any of the top four Phoenix Academy sides.
The Nix Reserves remain second after six rounds despite this loss. In third place, one point behind, are Miramar Rangers who blew Island Bay out of the water with a 6-1 win this week and would you believe it (yes, you would) Martin Bueno scored four of them. It was Xavier Coleman who started things for Miramar on 10’ although Jeremy Sutton equalised on 18’ and it remained 1-1 for a decent spell until Bueno’s first goal five mins before the half. Island Bay were in the hunt... then Sutton got sent off midway through the second half after getting two yellows in a short space of time and ten-man IBAFC went on to concede four times in the last ten mins. Bueno scored on 81’, 82’, and 90’ while Nicolas Bobadilla got one on 86’. The South American connection at work. Bueno bagged five in a win against North Wellington three weeks ago so apparently hat-tricks aren’t good enough for him. Bueno is up to 11 goals overall... Kieran McMinn (7 for Petone) is the only other dude with more than five goals in this division.
Big surprise as Napier City Rovers were toppled 2-1 away against Waterside Karori. Rovers had a huge win last week but they couldn’t repeat the dose and just like the last time they dropped points it was a late concession that hurt them. Ihaia Delaney scored after 68 mins. Christian Leopard equalised for NCR after 79. Delaney won it in the 87th and there we go. Massive victory for Karori who go level with Napier City on 10 points in fourth place. With Western Suburbs winning 6-2 against North Wellington to move to nine points it seems that the last National League qualifying spot could be hotly contested. Wests did concede first to a Joshua Zatorski penalty after 42 mins but Kaelin Nguyen levelled up shortly afterwards for a 1-1 half-time score. Nguyen scored again on 54’, then an own goal on 56’ and an Alifeleti Peini strike on 58’ busted the locks. Three goals in five minutes. Alex Mort pulled one back on 72’ to make it 4-2. Then Seb Barton-Ginger bagged an instant reply before Kaelin Nguyen completed his hatty on 81’. Barton-Ginger and Nguyen both spent lots of time with the Nix Academy so it’s a pair of ex-WeeNixers who are carrying the attacking weight for the Ole Academy team these days with five goals each.
There was an amazing game between Petone and Upper Hutt City. Despite being the home team, Petone found themselves 4-1 down a mere 23 minutes into this match on account of doubles for Ethan Barbier (8’ & 23’) and Lucas Hansen (10’ & 21’) with only a Jack O’Connor goal in between to very temporarily make it 2-1. Petone gave it a serious crack, getting back to 4-2 when Sam Pickering scored on 42’ and then getting it back to 4-3 after a Bray Whitecliffe goal on 69’. Alas, Sean Matthews was sent off right afterwards and Upper Hutt City held on for the 4-3 win. First win of the season for UHC. Incredibly, Upper Hutt had only scored once in five games before that burst of four goals in 23 minutes.
Women’s Central League
What’s this, a midweek game for Wellington United? That’s right and they were as ruthless as they always are, winning 7-0 at home against Miramar Rangers. This was the Diamonds almost at full-strength again but they still found room for a couple of youngsters. For example, Farina Anchico was given a third start in a row and she rewarded that faith but doing what she did in the other two starts: scoring a goal. Anchico’s 19th minute strike made it 2-0 after Natalie Olson had given WU the lead after 12 mins. Next it was Carolyn O’Reilly on 35’. Then Olson again on 39’. That made it 4-0 at half-time and the onslaught only continued from there with O’Reilly getting her second on 65’ followed by goals for Taylor Watson (67’) and Zoe Barrott (83’). O’Reilly’s having a superb start to the season – that’s seven goals already for the midfielder, trailing only her teammate Natalie Olson (who has nine) in the top scorer’s charts.
That result made it five wins from five for Wellington United. A few days later they faced their trickiest challenge yet with an away game against undefeated Petone FC… and they won that too. Albeit only just. Kyra Elder’s 21st minute goal had Petone in the lead for much of this game but the Diamonds eventually got there with strikes from Hannah Pilley (66’), Jasmine Burnard-Leppinus (72’), and Natalie Olson (90’) sealing a 3-1 result. Nevertheless, Petone dished up a proper scare for Welly Utd – who also lost Carolyn O’Reilly to injury after only ten minutes - and you’d have to think they have a decent chance of joining United in the National League. It’s neat to see three ex-Phoenix Academy players getting good opportunities at Petone: Marie Green, Kyra Elder, and Nova Hill. All three of them were playing for the Nix Reserves in the National League last year (as was goalie Aoife Gallagher-Forbes, though she wasn’t a full-time academy player).
Waterside Karori have been the other Capital Football representative in the WNL these last two seasons but they’ve tumbled back into the chasing pack this year amidst heaps of player turnover. It seems like they’re starting to figure things out again though. Since losing 4-0 to the WeeNix and 8-2 to Welly Utd to begin the Central League, the Wharfies have won four in a row with the latest being a 4-0 victory against a travelling Taradale side. Nicola Ross (17’), Renee Bacon (29’), Sherize Concessio (43’), and Taylor Cooper (48’) got the goals. You know who else was playing for Karori? Amelia Abbott. She’s wasted no time in cracking on after her debut A-League campaign came to an end. Abbott played ninety minutes here which is more than double what she got in her four substitute appearance for the Wellington Phoenix. Great pick-up from the Wharfies.
Miramar Rangers won 2-0 away against Moturoa. Chrystal Phillips (12’) and Jacqueline Broughton (32’) did the damage in the first half after the road trip to New Plymouth. With Palmerston North Marist also losing 2-0 at home against the Wellington Phoenix U18s, it was at risk of being an awful week for the non-Wellington clubs... until Palmerston North United saved the day with a 1-0 win away against Victoria University. Annabel Irwin scored the only goal after 32 minutes. PNU had only scored once in five previous games, all defeats, so this was an incredible result for them. First points of the season, doubled their goal tally, and after conceding 26 times in five games they also kept a clean sheet. They’re still last... but suddenly PNU are only three points adrift of fifth place.
It was Katie Pugh who scored both goals in that Phoenix U18s win. One after 40 mins, one after 62 mins. Pugh is possibly the most natural goal-scorer in the academy at the moment so brilliant to see her knocking them away – she’s already got six goals which is equal most of anyone outside of Wellington United. She’s sixteen years old. This was also another clean sheet for a WeeNix U18s side that has only conceded once in 450 minutes of Central League football. The goals aren’t flowing quite as freely as they were a few weeks ago but that’s because the best U18s players have moved up to the U20s after their season began two weekends ago. That Wellington Phoenix U20s team has been great too. They won again this week, beating Onslow/North Wellington U15 Boys by a 3-1 scoreline. Sienna Candy (34’), Lily Brazendale (60’), and Grace Bartlett (77’) scored the goals after they’d conceded first.
37 different players have featured in matchday squads for the Phoenix’s U18s and U20s so far this year. There were 29 different players used in the 2024 National League yet there are only 15 players in common between the 39 and the 29. In other words, there are 14 players from the WNL crew who haven’t been backing up. Seven of them are on first-team contracts, either scholarship or full, so they’ve had better things to do. We might see them over the winter now that the A-League’s wrapped up. The other seven have left the club: Lara Smith and Georgie Furnell are at Wellington United; Nova Hill, Kyra Elder, and Marie Green are at Petone; Aoife Gallagher-Forbes was only an emergency keeper and she’s also gone back to Petone; and Rebekah Trewhitt’s just made the fascinating move to America to play for Union 10 in the Women's Premier Soccer League. More on that in the next Flying Kiwis write-up.
Men’s Southern League
Dunedin City Royals have had a really good start to the campaign but they couldn’t match Christchurch United this week, not even at home. Pretty hard to beat a team like that when you have to play roughly 75 minutes with ten men as DCR did after an early red card for Ben Campbell. They scrapped away despite the deficit but Daniel Meyn got one pas them after 40 mins and then Waisea Henry put a stamp on it right at the very end for a 2-0 result. Lots of big names in the Rams side but it was a couple of academy lads who got the goals. Henry is only 17yo. Christchurch United have just conceded three times in six games.
Cashmere Technical had a rough April. After a very good win against Coastal Spirit, they were beaten by Wānaka, drew with Nomads, and lost to Nelson Suburbs. But they finally bounced back with a 3-2 win against Ferrymead Bays this week. It was a back and forth affair. Lyle Matthysen gave Tech the lead after 7 mins but Omar Cameron held serve for Bays on 20’. Garbhan Coughlan gave CT another lead in the 28th minute goal but Cameron equalised again (42’) to make it 2-2 at half-time. Then Coughlan grabbed a second five mins after the break and that’s the way it stayed. Cashmere are still averaging more than two concessions per game, which is crazy by their standards..
No dramas for Coastal Spirit. Riku Ichimura was on fire again as he scored twice (3’, 69’) in a 3-0 win against Nelson Suburbs. Liam Cotter got the other one (53’). Riku Ichimura has nine goals already, three clear of all other challengers (including Garbhan Coughlan, although Garbs hasn’t played every game). That win sends Coastal five points clear of third place as they seek to build on last year’s National League appearance by qualifying again. Also got a decent contest between Wānaka and Nomads United. It was Wānaka who scored first through Ronan Dillow (9’) but after holding that lead well into the second half it slipped away when Caleb Cottom levelled up from the penalty spot (63’) and then Guy Reeves (75’) and Cooper Goldsmith (85’) sent Nomads into a healthy lead. Dillow got one back in stoppages but it was too late. 3-2 to Nomads.
Finally, we had a bottom of the table clash between Selwyn United and Universities of Canterbury. These two teams had each lost all five games, only scoring five goals between them... but the shackles were loosed and we got a high-scoring and entertaining draw. That keeps them both winless but at least everyone’s got a point now. Selwyn were leading 2-0 thanks to goals from Sena Benseman (33’) and Finlay Cotton (48’) but UC hit ‘em late with two goals in the last ten. Emanuel Peralta (81’) and Dylan Winstanley (82’) snatching a draw from the clutches of defeat.
Women’s South Island League
Dunedin City Royals got the job done away against Universities of Canterbury with a 2-0 win. Royals weren’t at their best with a couple of players missing. According to the Football South page they only had three players on the bench (their own social media listed four... which is still short of capacity). Not to worry because goal-scoring centre-back Hannah Mackay-Wright was there to give them the lead after half an hour, then Shelby Jones finished it off with quarter of an hour to go.
Meanwhile, Otago University were even better during their trip to Christchurch. They won 4-0 away against Coastal Spirit with the goals supplied by Ruby Brathwaite (7’), Leila Hausia-Haugen (22’), and Georgia Nixon (30’ & 72’). That Spirit team had several starters with extensive National League experience yet the Otago Uni girls smashed them for another exclamation mark on their brilliant run. Amazingly, DCR and Otago Uni have the exact same records after five rounds: five wins, zero draws, zero losses with 22 goals scored and two conceded. Dead even at the top of the pops. Georgia Nixon is now clear as the league’s top scorer with seven of them – Nixon was playing in the same WaiBOP teams as Michaela Foster coming through the grades, now here she is a few years later scoring them for fun down south. Best learn a few names because this team is the surprise package of the entire country right now.
Cashmere Technical had the bye so nothing from them. But there was a crazy game between Roslyn-Wakari and Halswell United in which the home side scored five times in the first hour. They were up 4-1 at half-time before Halswell made it slightly more respectable in what ended up being a 6-3 final score. Amelie East-Giles scored a hatty for RWAFC (7’, 34’, 79’) while Isla Smith (24’), Zara Pratley (45’), and Morgan MacCormick (58’) also got amongst it. For Halswell, the goals were scored by Amelia Newlands (42’), Sophie Withell (68’), and Emma Batey (90’).
The dramatics went up to an even higher level when Nelson Suburbs hosted NW United. Jemma Creed had NWU leading within two minutes of kickoff but Sola Tsuruta levelled up on the brink of half-time. Abigail Platt then seemed to have won it for Nelson Subs with a 78th minute goal... only for Creed to promptly tie it back up (80’) and instead it was Jade Lewington whose injury time goal won it for NW United. 3-2 was the score at Saxton Fields. Poor old Nelson Suburbs remain without a point after four straight defeats.
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